#TRICKSTER CHOICE FREE#

“I don’t know if I can help,” Rihani protested. “Who is it?” asked Rihani, her voice shaking with terror. She used what was left of that to light candles, then stumbled through the study and battered the door to Petranne and Elsren’s rooms. “Pressure slows the bleeding,” she whispered.Īly seized a goosefeather bolster from the bed and used it to beat out the small fire that had spread from the second man-at-arms’s torch. Carefully she laid the wadded-up shirt on Mequen’s bleeding wound and pressed down with it. Winnamine grabbed a shirt and knelt beside the girls. She lurched off of the bed without so much as a glance at the man who would have made her queen, and ran to her father’s side. A few griffin-fletched arrows lay on the coverlet where she could reach them. Dove stood on its far side, a bow in her hand. Bracing herself against the wall, Aly looked across the bed. Aly groped the man’s neck until her swelling fingers hit two long, slender shafts buried in his throat. She hung on for her life and dragged on his nose, keeping his head back. He wrenched the knife from her grip, breaking more of her bones, then slammed her into the wall again. Still she clung, raising her left hand for another slash. She’d gotten his jaw by mistake.īronau roared and threw himself back, slamming Aly against the unforgiving stone wall. Instead she hooked her fingers in his nostrils and pulled, then stabbed blindly. She gripped a knife in her left hand and jumped for Bronau’s back, grabbing for his chin with blood-slick fingers.

#TRICKSTER CHOICE FREE#

“We can do this nicely, or not,” he informed her calmly, “but you are going to lead a revolt at my side.”Īly wriggled free of the body that had pinned her. As she stumbled, he shoved her onto the bed. Sarai caught herself, pivoted, and lunged again.īronau seized her blade in gauntleted hands and wrenched it out of Sarai’s grip, tossing it aside. He stepped back, half-pivoting, as her sword cut a bright line across his mail.

“His lips move, don’t they?” She lunged, her sword aimed at Bronau’s heart. “He lies,” Aly croaked, Seeing it in Bronau. Only swear that you’ll marry me and be my queen, and I’ll call one of my mages to heal him.” “He would be the first to tell you that when a crown’s at stake, friendship becomes a luxury.” He pointed to Mequen. “He is your friend!” cried Sarai.īronau stepped back, raising both hands, though he kept a grip on his sword. Facing Bronau, she brought it up to the ready position. She darted past Winnamine and grabbed her father’s sword. As he fought to rise, Bronau ran him through. Then the duke’s feet slipped in the armsman’s blood. Mequen glanced down and stabbed him through the throat. The soldier’s knees gave way.Īs he dropped, he lashed out, cutting Mequen’s leg. Winnamine hit him twice more with all her strength. Ornate metal leaves opened cuts in his eyebrows, cuts that blinded him with blood. The armsman’s nose broke with a dull crunch. The moment his attention shifted to Aly, Winnamine slammed her candelabrum across his face. It struck the last man-at-arms on the cheekbone, opening a gash there. Clenching her teeth, she rose halfway under the dead man’s weight and threw the blade. Mequen cut a long, shallow slice down Bronau’s leg, cutting through leather into flesh.Īly got her right hand free. “Don’t kill the girl!” shouted Bronau as he hacked the bed curtains by mistake. The remaining man-at-arms advanced on Winnamine and Sarai, shielding his face from the rain of vases, plates, and cosmetics jars. Aly cursed as she struggled to free herself of the corpse that weighed her down. Pembery shrieked and hid under the bed, begging the gods for help, as Winnamine and Sarai threw everything they could reach at the third of Bronau’s soldiers. The body smothered most of the flames as Mequen blocked another of Bronau’s strikes. Mequen used a bare foot to sweep the soldier’s feet from under him, dumping him onto it.

Mequen kept his sword moving in a sidelong cut that bit into the belly of Bronau’s second man-at-arms. Bronau parried the blow with a half-turn, pushing Mequen’s blade aside.

Mequen lunged with his sword, chopping at his old friend.

“Papa!” cried Sarai as Winnamine held her back. She squirmed madly, trying to free herself. He choked, staggered, and toppled backward, crushing Aly under his body. Wrapping her right hand around his chin, she yanked his head back and dragged her left-hand knife across his throat. She leaped onto the back of the closest man-at-arms. You’re going to be my father-in-law.”Īly got her feet under her. They are keeping your old woman busy, if they haven’t killed her yet. Bronau smiled as if she were a clever student who had given a good answer.

Trickster choice